Letter from Ambassador in September “Three years in the Kingdom of Denmark”

Dear Friends,

   I hope that this last letter will find you well. Three years have passed since I arrived in Denmark in October 2019. I have been fortunate to have experienced so many things and time will come for me to complete my mission in the Kingdom of Denmark in mid-October.

   There are 9 couples of sister and friendship cities between Japan and the Kingdom of Denmark. From north to south, Klaksvik of the Faroe Islands and Taiji, Wakayama prefecture, Frederikshavn and Hidaka, Wakayama prefecture, Silkeborg and Kama, Fukuoka prefecture, Gladsaxe and Taito, Tokyo, Kolding and Anjo, Aichi prefecture, Soro and Wakuya, Miyagi prefecture, Odense and Funabashi, Chiba prefecture, Næstved and Narita, Chiba prefecture, and Faaborg-Midtfyn and Noboribetsu, Hokkaido. I have visited the nine cities and sometimes received friends and colleagues from some of these cities in Copenhagen. Through these mutual visits, I have been so grateful for being enlightened about the history and rich culture of the respective regions. During the severe months of the COVID-19, we have encouraged each other hoping for an early reopening of society that would allow us to resume exchanges beyond national borders, and have exchanged views for future perspective of youths, culture and sports exchanges as well as further expansion of trade and investment. I have also much enjoyed Danish friends’ explanation on “hygge”, “Folke Hojskole” and their activities to share such Danish wonderful concept with Japan. This summer, colleagues from Kama visited Silkeborg, and in early October the Mayor and people from Anjo will visit Kolding. In the meantime, a good news I hear is that students and the youths of both countries are gradually resuming mutual visits all over the countries. I am sure and hope that these exchanges will continue to expand for many years to come.

(Royal Run in September 2021)

   Last summer, the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games were held. From Denmark, H.E. Mr. Rasmus Prehn, Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and H.E. Ms. Ane Halsboe-Jorgensen, Minister for Culture kindly participated in Olympic and Paralympic respectively. The athletes from the Kingdom of Denmark won medals in badminton, cycling, sailing, handball, shooting, rowing, canoe, swimming, equestrian and taekwaondo. I would like to reiterate my respect to all the participating athletes and the colleagues of their teams for their utmost performances after going through long preparations under challenging circumstances. I will remember vividly the Japanese women handball players who came to Denmark for pre-camp with the Danish head coach among others. Also, whenever I meet Faroese colleagues, we smile to each other, remembering the Faroese para marathon runner who stopped in the middle of the race and bowed to the spectators to express his gratitude. It was a heart-warming moment and the Japanese national media reported it over the country. My privilege as Ambassador from the host country both before and after the Games has been to meet and exchange views with colleagues and friends from various national sports organizations from different competitions, and occasionally we invited each other to our own home on top of visiting the offices. I am deeply thankfull to my colleagues and friends for having shown the constant trust and expectation to convening of the Games in Japan.

   This spring, the Copenhagen Sakura (Cherry blossom) Festival was held after three years’ disruption due to the COVID-19. So many people joined. I recall favorably the enthusiasm which filled the festival, and also so many occasions when I experienced music, painting, installation, film, Budo, Chado, calligraphy, flower arrangement (Ikebana), design, brims of Japanese sword among others by the Japanese artists in the past three years in the Kingdom of Denmark. We must be made alive thanks to culture, if I may say so without being afraid that I might sound a bit overexaggerating. For those who have been and will be involved in the Danish and Japanese cultural exchanges, I would like to say with respect “thank you so much for enriching our minds always including during the COVID-19 period and we would be grateful if you could continue to do so for both Denmark and Japan.”

   

    (“Ikebana”, flower arrangement at the Residence for official luncheon)

   Our bilateral relations between the governments have steadfastly developed in the past three years. In November last year, H.E. Mr. Jeppe Kofod, Foreign Minister of Denmark visited Japan and met H.E. Mr. HAYASHI Yoshimasa, Foreign Minister of Japan. Both Ministers reaffirmed to deepen the strategic partnership. Since then, Japan and Denmark as the like-minded countries and the strategic partners have further enhanced our cooperation upon our policies to address the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the Free and Open Indo Pacific, climate change and energy security, life science, digitalization and so on. The Ministries of Defense of Japan and Denmark have continued dialogue through online conferences, visits and attendance to international meetings at various levels including the ministers. I have also talked with the Danish colleagues about how we can continue to strengthen such communications and cooperation.

   In this context, the Japanese and Danish companies have vigorously promoted our economic relations. Japan has been the second largest investor to Denmark, next to the US, among the non-European countries. Even during the challenging period of the COVID-19, I was always encouraged whenever I talked with the Japanese companies who decided to expand their investment to Denmark, or to keep renewing the existing investment to Denmark for many years with some new ideas and angles, and the Danish companies who aimed to expand the investment to Japan in the areas such as wind power generation, pharmaceutical, agriculture, digitalization, finance among others. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the colleagues of the Japanese companies who joined the business missions organized by the Embassy of Japan to visit Greenland in 2020 and to the Faroe Islands in 2022, and to the colleagues and friends of Greenland and the Faroe Islands who kindly received us.

 

   (Faroe Islands in September 2022)

   In the long history of the relations between the Kingdom of Denmark and Japan, we would probably find the last three years in hindsight as the period affected by the COVID-19. For me and my colleagues of the Embassy of Japan, it has been always one of the top priorities to ensure the safety and security of the Japanese nationals living in the Kingdom of Denmark. We are making efforts. I would like to reiterate our deep gratitude to the Danish authorities and people for their constant cooperation to this end including all the measures taken during the COVID-19 period such as vaccinations, tests and so on. As the Japanese border measures are to be lifted soon, the Embassy of Japan would appreciate any views from the Danish and Japanese persons for our future exchanges.

   One thing I have learnt in these years is that the stricter the physical restrictions are, the stronger our will becomes to communicate each other in depth. If the Danes and Japanese who went through these years together would meet and talk in 10 years’ time, we would never stop sharing our common memories over Sake and Snaps until the dawn. With this slightly tipsy dream, I would look forward to seeing you somewhere sometime in future. Thank you so much for sparing your precious time and reading my letters for a long time. I sincerely wish you the best.
 

(Before attending the New Year’s reception in 2020 for the diplomatic corps hosted by Her Majesty The Queen)